Oct 9 2022 Sunday Service by Laura Gordon

Unitarian Universalism is unlike other religions in that we do not have a creed. We have no religious dogma. Ours is a covenantal faith. The thing that ties us together in religious community is the practice of keeping covenant with each other and the world. We covenant to affirm and promote our Principles, which are derived from and founded upon our values. But what are our UU values?

UU is a living tradition. As a living tradition, we must periodically revisit the things that are most important to us to be sure they are still the things that are most important to us. And we cannot grow unless we grow together. A very, very brief historical outline illustrates our growth. The Unitarian Church started in eastern Europe in the 16th century as a Protestant sect that was anti-trinitarian. It matured in Great Britain and America, incorporating other “isms” such as transcendentalism and rationalism, until the American Unitarian Association merged with the Universalist Church of America in 1961. The Universalists were also a Protestant sect whose core theology was universal salvation. When the two faiths became the Unitarian Universalist Association-the UUA-PUUF’s parent organization, they forged Bylaws to define their shared principles. In our current Bylaws, a statement of belief is implied in Article 2. Article 2 has four sections titled: Principles, Purposes, Inclusion and Freedom of Belief. Note that if you were to look for an explicit statement of our values, you wouldn’t find it in Article 2. In fact, you might not find it at all.

Most of us are familiar with the 7 Principles and 6 Sources as stated in Article 2. You will find them listed in the preface to your hymnal. The Principles section of the Bylaws is our covenant, beginning “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote” the 7 Principles. Our living tradition draws upon many sources, and the Principles section lists 6 Sources. The Purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association (on the facing page in your hymnal) state that the UUA exists to be the corporate power for its member congregations, but also, and importantly, it exists to “implement its principles”.

For some religious institutions, the equivalent of Article 2 would be regarded as a permanent statement of belief. Ours, however, is a Living Tradition and change is part of who we are. When we say one of our core principles is learning and valuing direct experience, that means that we have to be open to change. It’s impossible to learn and grow but not to change. We commit ourselves to regularly revisiting our Principles, Sources and Purpose to ensure that we are relevant, that as we grow in understanding, our Principles and Purposes grow, too. The UUA Bylaws actually call for Article 2 to be re-evaluated every 15 years.

From the time of the merger of Unitarians with Universalists until the late 1970s, UUs were asked to affirm “the dignity of man”, and the “ideals of brotherhood.” In that era, the bylaws used a single pronoun to reference all ministers: “he.” The 1961 bylaws had only 6 Principles. The 7th Principle was added in the 1987 revision, which also made the language more gender neutral.

The Bylaws were last revised in 1987 and approved in the 1995 General Assembly, and these are essentially the ones we know today. The last attempt at a full revision of the bylaws was voted down at General Assembly in 2009. At that revision, the Seven Principles were essentially unchanged, but the Sources were reworded and many felt that everything “lost its poetry”.

The Principles we affirm today were made possible by a changing world in which people who were excluded demanded space for themselves. In doing so, they made a better Unitarian Universalism possible. As we have grown and changed within our living tradition since the 2009 rejection of the bylaws rewrite, there have been a few changes to Article 2. The non-discrimination clause was amended to the “Inclusion” Section which holds us newly accountable by stating “systems of power, privilege, and oppression have traditionally created barriers…”, that we pledge to “replace. . .with ever-widening circles of solidarity and mutual respect.” An 8th Principle Study Commission was appointed in 2017 to give major consideration to adding the 8th Principle – which, stated briefly: “[promotes] journeying toward spiritual wholeness by. . . dismantl[ing] racism and other oppressions”. Although many congregations have adopted an 8th Principle for themselves, it is not in our current Bylaws.

We are overdue to do a review and make changes to Article 2 so that we are living into the Unitarian Universalism of the future. In 2020 the UUA Board of Trustees created the Article 2 Study Commission which was charged to review Article 2 and “propose any revisions that will enable [UUs] to be a relevant and powerful force for spiritual and moral growth, healing, and justice.” Let me quote statements from the Board’s charge to the Commission: “Proposed changes should articulate core UU theological values. The Board believes that one core theological value, shared widely among UUs, is love. The new Principles and Purposes should guide us in the transformation of ourselves, our communities and our faith into active networks of collective care, restoration, and justice. [The Commission] should ask us to choose Love in Action as the path forward. “

Therefore, the Article 2 Study Commission began its work in 2020. The Commission is co-chaired by Rev. Cheryl Walker and Dr. Rob Spirko. The other members are Dr. Paula Cole Jones, a leader in advancing the 8th Principle, Becky Brooks and teenagers Satya Mandami and Maya Waller, who were 16 and 17 when the Commission started its work. Rev. Walker has said that the Commission does not view its work as a mere edit, but a fundamental re-visioning. The Commission is not working in a vacuum. Over 900 UU members participated in surveys prior to GA 2022, when all of the attendees were also surveyed. So, after these several years of input from individuals and congregations, which are still ongoing, the Commission will begin writing the new Article 2 after the new year. The draft will be presented at the 2023 General Assembly, and after another year for review, it will be voted on at GA in 2024.

As we think about what we need from a revised Article 2, we want to ask: What do we need to promise to each other now and going forward? How do we covenant in a way that leads us into the fullness of who we can be as a faith? How do we balance our deeply held values of individual freedom of belief with the collective good we strive for in our covenant? What are our UU values?

This was the first question the Article 2 Commission asked. We UUs are like-valued people, we share values. We won’t necessarily agree on beliefs, philosophy or theology. Our 7 principles are a covenant, not truly a statement of faith or values. It’s our values which are foundational, but we haven’t actually articulated them. Covenant is how we live our values together.

Some words about covenant. Covenant is an intentional conversation about the value-based actions we expect from each other. It hold us in community by giving everyone a voice. Covenant is relational and shifts the emphasis from the individual to the collective. Covenant creates obligations and demands accountability, but covenant is aspirational and reinforced by forgiveness. It creates clarity about the path forward and demands work. One could argue covenant is all we are as UUs, since we have no creed.

So what are our values? The Commission first asked many groups of UUs for words that embody their personal values and created a word cloud.

 

The same words kept coming up in each group: love, compassion, respect, freedom, justice, dignity, worth, integrity, interdependence, kindness, etc. Note that the most common word was love.

From the personal values words in the word clouds, the Commission distilled our collective values to 7 interrelated value words which they presented at last June’s GA. These words relate to each other and reinforce each other. These 7 words may not be the exact final words used in the new Article 2 to name the values they are trying to represent.

 

Starting at the top-pluralism/diversity: our ability to embrace our differences makes us unique on the religious landscape. We have diversity of thought, theology and identities.

Interdependence-we need one another, we cannot thrive alone. We are dependent on each other and our home planet.

Equity-the beginning and the goal of our justice making. Equity is fairness.

Generosity-we should be generous with our spirit and our resources to make the communities of love we dream about. It is the generous heart that strives to bring more peace, freedom, and love into the world.

Justice-we are here to create the beloved community within our walls and in the world at large.

Evolution-we welcome transformation. Throughout our history we have evolved and we will continue to do so.

And at the center is Love-love of humanity, love of earth, love of all who inhabit earth. Our love is active and committed to do justice and to love kindness. We respond to the call of love because it is our common theological core. It is what can and does motivate us and illuminates our deepest commitments to each other.

Currently, Article 2 has us covenant to affirm and promote our Principles. Remember, our Principles imply our values but do not state them. But are our Principles so broken that we need to fix them? No, our Principles are not broken, but the world is broken. We need to do more than just affirm and promote. We want to be accountable to do the work and we have an obligation to do the work because we know that this is the work our values call us to do. We don’t use words like obligation because we will be punished if we don’t do these things-we are already being punished by the knowledge we are doing harm-with climate change, with economic and political inequality, with retributive justice and the carceral state, with division that keep us from learning from one another. It’s lack of accountability that hurts-our failure to recognize what we owe one other as nodes on an interconnected web of fates. The Principles are not broken, they are missing important pieces, they are missing verbs. Our values call us to do something.

Consider a covenant that is explicitly grounded in our shared values but that adds the verbs we need to take action. The Study Commission is proposing language to give life to our values by backing them up with the promises they inspire in us. They propose that we think of our covenant as statements that work like this: “We value X, so we covenant to act Y.” Here are some examples:

We value equity, so we covenant to use our resources of time, wisdom, attention and money to make our communities fully accessible, equitable and free. We understand that liberation is only possible when we embrace our difference.

We value interdependence, so we covenant to work to understand our place in the web of existence. We know a sustainable environment is essential to all life. We will deepen and grow our connections with UUs around the globe called into responsibility to heal the human community and support sustainable environments.

We value evolution, so we covenant to accept our responsibility to change and grow spiritually, personally and ethically and as an institution. We evolve knowing that once changed we can never be unchanged, but we remain open to new wisdom from different sources. Evolution is never complete or perfect.

We value justice, so we covenant to create environments where people thrive. We will work to dismantle systems of racism, oppression and white supremacy culture in our congregations and in ourselves. In working to bring justice, we work to bring peace to ourselves, our communities and our world.

So these are just examples. This language for how we might express our principles as covenanting to put our values into action is draft language. It is not finalized. In late October and November, there will be feedback sessions, that you can still participate in, to help craft the Principles and Sources Section before the project is finalized next year.

When it comes to our Sources, the Commission has proposed a single statement. Currently, our Sources are a list of 6, and it’s an incomplete list. I am sure any one of you can probably think of something to add. No matter how long, a list can never be complete, so the current draft language does away with the list and is as follows:

“As Unitarian Universalists we draw upon and are inspired by the full depth and breadth of sacred understanding as experienced by humanity. Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches our faith, we are inspired to ever deepen and expand our wisdom.”

Our Principles and Sources are in the first section of Article 2, the “Principles” Section. This is our covenant and will be the core of our faith. There are also changes proposed for the other three sections of Article 2, but they are more like edits than major revisions. The current “Inclusion” Section of Article 2 was added in 2014 to replace a non-discrimination statement, and no new language has been proposed for it. Language that strengthens the resolve of the “Purposes” section was proposed, along with some tweaks to the “Freedom of Belief” Section. Feedback on those two sections was just received last month.

I think you can see that the Article 2 Study Commission has asked important questions about who and what we are as Unitarian Universalists. They are proposing a radical re-visioning of Article 2. I believe the Commission has more clearly articulated that we are a faith made up of people who covenant together to not just promote and affirm, but to actualize our values in the world. The Commission is finally naming our core values and challenging us that we have an obligation to live our values and to be accountable to them. The proposed new language of Article 2 will be our covenant and can be our calling. So, what are our UU values? Love foremost, and perhaps not exactly in these words: justice, evolution, pluralism/diversity, interdependence, equity, and generosity.

Laura Gordon